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This series is long overdue for a revival! I enjoyed posting these so much and I learn so much when I dig into the principles Miss Mason sets out for the teacher, so here I am this morning, adding another teaching gem for you to consider.

I know we’re all wrapping up our years, and doing so always involves a certain amount of looking back….while also looking forward and considering anew, so it’s a great time to consider some of these foundational ideas on the topic of teaching!

Education Considers Relations

To set the context for today’s teaching gem, Miss Mason presents a phenomenal idea: the importance and necessity that education be rooted in relationships. That idea may initially seem like a saccharine notion, a throwback to a time long past and an idea well out of reach in a culture more focused on instant gratification than slowly building relationships, but I propose that it is not. Classically speaking, this idea may be essential in recovering a culture.

When a child meets an author or a book that speaks to the depths of his heart, he forms a relationship with that book, with that author, with those ideas. And if we take this idea further in a CM education, when that child shares what he knows from a book with you, the relationship deepens. Then, as the child matures, those ideas which he may have originally met years ago in his youth, now cemented, form a deeper spiritual relationship within the child. Connections are made, and the child continues to grow within the relationship of those ideas.

“…consider that…education considers what relations are proper to a human being, and in what ways these several relations can be best established…” (School Education, p. 65-66)

The vehicle for transporting ideas which leads to a relationship is the worthy book the child reads: the book must first be living, true, noble, beautiful, and express well the worthy tale within its covers. If you have a hard time considering this in an abstract way just think of Mother Goose (read why here), the Little House on the Prairie series, The Story of King Arthur, Paddle to the Sea, or Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee – do those help as more concrete examples? Each of these books, and those like them, strike a profound tone. Some lay the groundwork for building on the good, others awaken ideas and sentiments within that young person. Rather than being told about a place, time or event, they’re immersed in it through an author’s passion for words and ability to convey the period through his art. These are worthy tales, well told, and the child, a person made in the image and likeness of God, responds to the inherent beauty within and these books become friends. Relationship! Relationships which grow, mature, and yield wonderful, rich fruit over time. So, having set the context and understanding how essential these worthy books are to the education of a child…

1. first, to put him in the way of forming these relations by presenting the right idea at the right time, and by forming the right habit upon the right idea;

2. and secondly, by not getting in the way and so preventing the establishment of the very relations we seek to form.

The art of standing aside to let a child develop the relations proper to him is the fine art of education, when the educator perceives the two things he MUST do and how to do these two things.”

Thoughts on the fine art of education

As teachers we have two concerns: putting the child IN the way and for our part, NOT getting in the way – and there is an art to knowing this and figuring out how to make this work! A fine art! Sound easy? It might not be as easy in practice as it is in principle – mainly because we’re all so anxious that our kids “get it” or see the underlying symbolism, or note the metaphor, or…. So we do what any self-respecting teacher does, right? We point it out. From seven different angles…just in case they didn’t get it the first six times we explained it. We tend to operate from a structured, outlined, more “scientific” perspective because that’s what “the experts” tell us we should be seeing/hearing from our kids and this scientific extraction method is how best to go about getting at it, but Miss Mason is pretty clear in saying that this is an “art” not a science. Art is about expression – so think of this as you, the teacher, expressing your choice to stand aside. As opposed to what? Agatha Christie has this great quote which I wrote down in my commonplace book, and it sums up the answer better than I could:

““I suppose it is because nearly all children go to school nowadays and have things arranged for them that they seem so forlornly unable to produce their own ideas.”

Are you arranging every idea in a row, every connection, every next step in every lesson? We should be diligent in planning and scheduling worthy books (this would fall under “putting the child in the way of right ideas), but it is our duty to stand aside at this point and allow the child to form connections, pursue the lesson, grow in relationship.

Did you read that really important part of point 1? It goes hand in hand with putting the child in the way — our job is to form the right habit upon the right idea. This point alone has more depth than I can go into here, suffice to say it is a very classical idea – Aristotle spoke often of virtue being the aim of wisdom and education. Classical educators educate for virtue. Forming the right habit is rooted in our God-given position of authority, and our duty to train our children in those right habits: virtues. Not only must we, as teachers, put our child in the way of right ideas, but we must form the right habits around those ideas. This doesn’t mean spoon feeding the moral of a story; it does mean seeking virtuous examples to nurture a child’s soul and investing time in cultivating good habits which lead to virtue. Without virtue, education is empty and meaningless.

Our duty as parents, “consists essentially in preparing man for what he must be and for what he must do here below, in order to attain the sublime end for which he was created. It is clear that there can be no true education which is not wholly directed to man’s last end…” (Pius XI, On the Christian Education of Youth)

The teacher has a very active role – our own eyes must be open to wonder in order to place a child in the way of objects, experiences, books, and ideas that are the “right idea at the right time,” and THEN we exercise standing aside – not getting in the way. As the teacher, I engage my child through the narration, the telling back. I allow my own sense of wonder to guide me because that is part of forming the relationship and furthering the relationship.

“...Half the teaching one hears and sees is more or less obtrusive. The oral lesson and the lecture, with their accompanying notes, give very little scope for the establishment of relations with great minds and various minds. The child who learns his science from a text-book…he who gets his information from object-lessons, has no chance of forming relations with things as they are, because his kindly obtrusive teacher makes him believe that to know ABOUT things is the same as knowing them personally. … (People) do not always see that the choice of books, which implies the play of various able minds directly upon the mind of the child, is a great part of that education which consists in the establishment of relations.” (CM, School Education, p. 66)

If I lecture or start to point out symbolism or key points that my child missed in a narration, I become the “kindly obtrusive teacher” that is certain that if I just tell the child about something, he’ll get it, and somehow it will be personal and important to him. Nope. It doesn’t work that way and I’m betting that right now, you’re calling up memories of your child’s glazed over look when you tried this very tactic. But, really – this is great news homeschool mom! We don’t have to lecture! We don’t have to know everything and be able to offer 36 hour-long lectures across a school year on a variety of topics from Shakespeare to pond biology! (Can I get an amen?!) We are privileged to be alongside: to learn alongside, wonder alongside. And in this mysterious, delightful mix of worthy books and an education of relationships the child is nurtured and grows toward self-education; yet we, too, are blessed. “It blesses him that gives and him that takes.” (CM, Vol 6, p. 27)

These are classical principles, universally true, woven through a Charlotte Mason education, that fit the child because these teaching principles view the child as a person – whether a child is gifted, average, or has learning disabilities. Can you see how presenting worthy, living ideas to a child, any child, is universally fitting? Made in the image of God, we are capable of recognizing truth, beauty, and goodness – so it isn’t a huge leap to understand that we, as teachers, should put the child in the way of TRUTH, BEAUTY, AND GOODNESS. As simple as that is, it reaches profound depths. And who better to put him in the way of truth, beauty and goodness than mater et magistra (mother and teacher)?

What if you’re new to home education, or new to Charlotte Mason’s methods and philosophy and this idea requires a seismic paradigm shift?

Work on putting your child “in the way” of the true, good and beautiful. Brainstorm it. Do the books you have available illuminate truth, goodness and beauty? What about the programs you watch? (There are some fantastic “living” programs out there) How about the experiences and field trips? Are they canned or do they invite exploration and allow a child to form relationships?

Trust that if you’ve read this far, you’re already invested in the formation of virtue and that this is going to support the foundation of your days and motivate your choices. Brainstorm how to fine-tune this later.

Work on standing aside by giving yourself a pep-talk, leave yourself a sticky note on your lesson plans to review before a narration with little bullets listed like:

don’t interrupt

ask questions – don’t be afraid of unanswered questions

engage with the story

wonder aloud

As always, I really enjoy reflecting on these principles, and I also really enjoy hearing how they work themselves out in your day! ‘Cause I’m a practical gal at heart! It’s all about the rubber meeting the road! Let me know what you think!

In putting your child in the way of right ideas, what have you learned? Share some tips and ideas!

How injurious then is our habit of depreciating children; we water their books down and drain them of literary flavor, because we wrongly suppose that children cannot understand what we understand ourselves; what is worse, we explain and we question. A few pedagogic maxims should help us, such as, “Do not explain.” “Do not question,” “Let one reading of a passage suffice,” “Require the pupil to relate the passage he has read.” The child must read to know; his teacher’s business is to see that he knows. All the acts of generalization, analysis, comparison, judgment, and so on, the mind performs for itself in the act of knowing.”

Have you ever met those teaching principles that seem daunting and intimidating because they’re lengthy and involve layers and layers of exacting analysis? You know an idea is worthwhile and doable when it can be broken down so simply. The child reads to know, the teacher’s job is to see that he knows.

And, always insightful and anticipating our needs for practical pegs, Miss Mason gives us a few simple maxims that act as guiding principles:

Do not explain

If you’ve ever read a favorite book a few times, then you’ll recognize that each time you do, you personally bring something new to that book and it may “speak to you” in a different way each time you read it. You’ve lived new experiences since you last read the book, or maybe your own maturity and understanding has grown and allows you to more fully sympathize with a heroine’s plight, or perhaps you sympathize with a character that in previous readings you barely noticed. So many events, experiences and deepening thoughts build within a person over time and we each bring that to our reading.

This is no different for a child. When they read a story, they bring their own unique circumstances and perspective – which will be decidedly different from our own viewpoint. And it will be decidedly literal because a young child sees literally, not abstractly. Invariably, we read a story and see morals we’d love to point out, or characters that we might identify with our child, but to explain these or to foist our own connections and observations on a child would be destructive and will undermine that child’s ability to “read to know.” They will begin to read to know you – to satisfy what they think you’re looking for. If we revisit for a moment the analogy Miss Mason likes to use of a living education as a feast of ideas, then explaining and pointing out and foisting our own observations is akin to shoveling gigantic spoonfuls of super rich, meaty food down the child’s throat – and then expecting them to be able to digest it. It’s force feeding. And it is just as unhealthy intellectually as it is physically.

One of the unique gifts of a Charlotte Mason education is that it meets the child EXACTLY where that child IS. Not where we are. Not where we think the child should be. Let the child read and know as they are. Embrace it. Avoid the impulse to explain or point out UNLESS your child asks you a question directly.

Now – to clarify – in a CM setting, the student narrated as part of a group and within that group narration, the student would also listen and be exposed to the other student’s narrations. Within this unique environment, other observations might be introduced to the child in ways that do not offend, but instead might further a narration. As a home educating mom, unless you’re reading aloud to all your children and inviting a group narration {a practice that I HIGHLY RECOMMEND you do as soon as you have more than one narrator!}, then you may wish to insert a few choice observations via the vehicle of your own narration. Does that make sense? You narrate, too. Tell your child that you noticed…. And that in the story, you saw how… Just narrate your own observations from the story – not in a pushy way that says, “you clearly missed these points.” I have to follow Our Lord’s admonition to “be like a child” when I narrate, otherwise I come across as a Pharisee. Allow wonder to imbue your own reading and narrating.

Do not question

Work on the habit of not interrupting the narration of the child. This is a VERY difficult habit to acquire but so important and worthwhile for the teacher to learn! Giving a narration is difficult business, and the student exercises their mental muscles in reading, remembering, collecting their thoughts, and giving it all back in a coherent manner. Questioning a child in the middle of a narration interrupts their work and stalls their progress in developing the habit of narration. If your student is still struggling to narrate well, ask yourself if YOU have been the cause of the delay in developing this skill? Have you been interrupting with questions?

Instead of questioning and interrupting, while your student is narrating, keep a small notebook and pencil handy and discreetly jot down questions you might have. Be careful here – if your note-taking is a distraction, you may have to work on another way to mentally remember your questions. Ask them at the end of a narration, and by all means, do so in a conversational way. Don’t quiz.

A quick word on general interruptions – consider structuring your day so that your new readers/narrators can narrate during THE MOST quiet part of your day so that their narrations can be as free from interruptions as possible. My big kids are quite adept at focusing through a multitude of distractions thanks to their younger siblings, but I value the opportunity to lay a good foundation in learning to narrate…and that means taking advantage of those quiet times and moments that might punctuate your day. Also, if your kids regularly interrupt you…or others…add it to your list of habits to work on. It seems like I’m always revisiting this one, but learning to not interrupt others is an excellent habit that serves the child throughout their life!

Let one reading of a passage suffice

Do not be tempted to go back and re-read (or let your child re-read) if your child balks at narrating. Make note of it. Brainstorm your choice of reading if your child has trouble narrating it:

Was the selection too long? Did you assign too much reading in a day? You may have to start with one paragraph for a narration and build from there.

Not a living book? Texty books and factual books are very hard to narrate. Some of my kids really LOVE Usborne books…but I’m not sure I consider them “living books”, and I found that out because they’re not able to be narrated.

Way too meaty for your child to narrate? Start with good…move forward from there. Just because all the other {nebulous, un-named, bound-for-Harvard-at-10-years-old} 3rd graders you read about are reading through Montesquieu, doesn’t mean it’s appropriate for your child. You know your child best. There is a definite, objective need for a child to developmentally progress in their reading –> Mother Goose to Fairy Tales to Novels…and then Montesquieu (?). Little ideas to bigger – one day at a time. I like to stick with a general plan of one meaty-stretch-to-read book per term.

Generally not engaging the child? This doesn’t happen often, but there have been a few books like this in our schedule over the years. This sometimes requires a little more brainstorming from me to decide if this book is “a hill I want to die on,” or if maybe I could pull this book and substitute another adequate living book on the topic at hand.

In allowing only one reading of a passage, we build the habit of attention. Of all the habits that Charlotte Mason emphasizes, the habit of full attention is probably the one she speaks of the most. And think about it, if your child learns no other habit from you except to bring full attention to a reading…and they do this over and over again…over the years…across a wide and generous curriculum…then I submit that this parent habit of attentiveness will naturally yield a variety of other fruits! Insist on it – full attention to a single reading. One little reading, one little day at a time. And there will be fruit.

Require the pupil to relate the passage he has read

Now this seems pretty obvious, and haven’t we already covered the idea of telling back in a narration, you ask? Haven’t we already pounded the idea of the student relating the passage he just read? Well…yes…but did you catch that one little word there?

– Passage –

A passage is a pretty undefined selection – it could be 3 pages, 10 pages…or it could be 1 very worthwhile paragraph. Don’t give your kids too much to read and narrate – especially your new narrators. CM said so. 😉 You might be surprised, taken aback even, by the list of books in a CM curriculum – it is wide and generous! Yet, the feast is spread out quite comfortably and moderately so that sometimes a “passage” on student’s schedule is really a very small amount. Consider the age of your child, the book to be read, the child’s reading ability, and let it be an appropriate passage – whether that’s one paragraph or one chapter.

And now…one other little word your eyes might have glanced right over…you didn’t want to see it…didn’t want to read it…it has consequences…oh no…there it is…

– Require –

Remember our original quote that illuminates a Charlotte Mason Teacher’s role? “The child must read to know; his teacher’s business is to see that he knows.” It all goes back to our authority, doesn’t it? As a CM teacher, we require a narration. It’s HOW we can “see that he knows.” Now…there are so many ways to narrate! So, do be creative here!

CM Notebooks – these make a very valuable vehicle for narrating and “relating the passage”

Poetry narrations – I haven’t talked about these before…mainly because my children don’t narrate in this manner, but pick up CM’s Volume 6 and it’s one of the first thing that strikes you about her children’s work: they narrate via poetry all.the.time. It’s one of those things on my CM list that I really want to explore.

The secondhand narration – ok, moms…don’t underestimate the value of over-hearing your 2nd grader telling your Kindergartner about John Henry or Paul Bunyan or Babe the Big Blue Ox! It counts! I’m just sayin’ – we home educating moms with a few kids have to take advantage of authentic and creative ways to “see that he knows.” I learned a couple of kids ago, that the second hand narration is legit! If you needed validation, consider yourself affirmed! 🙂

{Bonus} Silent Narrations

Immediately following the above selection from Charlotte Mason’s Philosophy of Education, Miss Mason describes a mental exercise that has the potential for transforming your upper level students’ narrations! Miss Mason illustrates how “the mind performs for itself the act of knowing” —

If we doubt this, we have only to try the effect of putting ourselves to sleep by relating silently and carefully, say, a chapter of Jane Austen or a chapter of the Bible, read once before going to bed. The degree of insight, the visualization, that comes with this sort of mental exercise is surprising.”

In reading this, we can see exactly how to step an older student through the mental exercise of a silent narration.

I discovered quite accidentally that my older students were narrating silently. I had become so busy – trying to keep up with littles, another pregnancy, growing children…and keeping up with narrations became something I valued so much…but there was only so much time in a day…and I couldn’t always invite a narration, from every child, immediately after they read a book. In fact, at that time, I had gotten in the habit of catching up on my older kids’ narrations at the end of the week – it was like a marathon session of “narrate every book you read from this week while I make eggs and biscuits for dinner.” Probably not one of my finer CM teaching moments! 🙂 Anyway, one day, I asked my daughter how she could narrate her reading so well when it had sometimes been 5 days since she’d read a book. She answered that she would sometimes just narrate to herself right after she read something, and that allowed her to remember and be able to narrate to me at a later time. KA-CHOW Talk about a lightbulb moment for me! I was so excited to know she was doing this and ever since then, I’ve been looking for references to this skill of silent narrations in Miss Mason’s writings. It is alluded to here and there, and the above quote is probably the best illustration of HOW to go about doing it.

I suppose you could try to begin developing this with elementary students, but my own thought is that this is best developed {almost intuitively as my daughter’s example illustrates} by an older student for whom the skill of narrating has fully developed. I view those early years as the most valuable time for setting habits like oral narration, and the middle and high school years are for building on those habits with written and silent narrations. So…consider working with your middle schoolers and high schoolers that are already capable and excellent narrators.

In following Miss Mason’s example, here are the finer points of this mental exercise:

Read at a quiet time {before bed, quiet afternoon}.

Read the selection once.

Silently and carefully, {narrate} tell the reading back to yourself – this is done interiorly.

Visualize yourself within the reading; allow yourself to mentally step into the reading.

Continue to narrate to yourself while visualizing the story/passage read.

If you or your child can do this, you’ve just narrated silently. And it has the same effect as an oral or written narration – cementing knowledge. It is very much a legitimate form of narration. The silent narration is an EXCELLENT tool in the home educating mom’s toolbox – so begin to develop this skill with your narrators! If you do, I think you’ll find you can free up some time on your schedule and in your day without compromising one of the cornerstones of a Charlotte Mason Education – the narration!

The teaching selection I chose for this week speaks to a key component of a Charlotte Mason education – Atmosphere – and an aid the teacher must make use of to ensure a fresh atmosphere. Our own current family circumstances allowed me an opportunity to reflect on atmosphere from a unique position that I’ve really come to appreciate.

From: Towards a Philosophy of Education, p. 97

School, perhaps, offers fewer opportunities for vitiating the atmosphere than does home life. But teaching may be so watered down and sweetened, teachers may be so suave and condescending, as to bring about a condition of intellectual feebleness and moral softness which it is not easy for a child to overcome. The bracing atmosphere of truth and sincerity should be perceived in every School; and here again the common pursuit of knowledge by teacher and class comes to our aid and creates a current of fresh air perceptible even to the chance visitor, who sees the glow of intellectual life and moral health on the faces of teachers and children alike.

As home educators, the atmosphere of our homes {versus a school} have more opportunity to be spoiled {vitiated}, says Miss Mason. I can think of a number of reasons this might happen. Perhaps an obvious opportunity for spoiling the atmosphere is in the challenge of accepting and living out our role as one in authority. A parent naturally wants to please, to soothe, to praise. Yet, these fine attributes are not always fitting within an atmosphere that must be bracing with truth and sincerity. In fact, Miss Mason instructs us, as teachers, that in failing to discharge our authority appropriately and instead communicating with condescension {authoritarianism} or with too much sweetness {an absence of authority} can set up “intellectual feebleness and moral softness” that a child may not be able to overcome. Allow yourself to think for a moment of the culture of “the entitled” we are now immersed in – an entire culture that insists that all…that anyone…should rightfully claim experiences and things…just because. In reflecting, I think you will be able to clearly see examples of intellectual feebleness and moral softness. There are times, in exercising authority, that we must insist on stretching a child toward their best, providing a child an opportunity to grow in discipline, allowing a child to experience failure and consequences, and allowing for honest words so that a child rightly develops his conscience and sense of objective right and wrong.

The Difference Between Atmosphere and Environment

Another culprit that threatens to spoil the atmosphere of a home can sometimes be understandably confused with the idea of “atmosphere”, so perhaps it’s good to bring it out and mark these as two very different ideas: environment is not atmosphere. It’s worth saying again – if you have been knocking yourself out, spinning your wheels and your budget consumed with focus in making your home or even a room you’ve set aside as a school room to look “just so”…just as you would envision an ideal school room to look – whether you’ve been focusing on a room, shelves, desks, bins, walls, educational materials, etc., etc. – then you have been focusing on the environment. The environment is quite simply your surroundings, it is where you live and breathe. It may consist of tools in your surroundings, too. So, if we think of environment as our surroundings where we live and breathe, then atmosphere is the very air we breathe within that space – it is what we live and breathe. Does that make sense? They’re two very different things.

Are your children breathing in hospitality?

Do the children perceive there is an invitation to learn…to know?

Is there a sense of considered boundaries that form the backbone of discipline so that there is freedom to explore within an established framework?

Is there a general sense of welcome when they ask questions?

Is the atmosphere of your home permeated with your own sincere curiosity alongside their seeking after a thing?

Does the atmosphere offer your own full attention to your children {engaged? present?} reciprocating the necessary habit of the child bringing his full attention as well?

Does the atmosphere of your home encourage creativity?

Is your atmosphere imbued with wonder?

Take away environment, and your surroundings, your space has changed, your tools may not be present, but your education can still live and breathe because a CM education is rooted in atmosphere – a tone and hospitality that welcomes knowledge and nurtures relationship with people and ideas. We, as teachers, set this tone and are responsible for exercising this hospitality toward our children that invites relationship.

Now, before you begin to wonder if you should eschew all educational tools and go minimalist, I think a word could be said on behalf of material tools in home education. Just as there is nothing wrong with accepting material possessions as a gift and blessing from God that we, as families, use as part of our vocation in raising our children, it is fitting that there might be some material blessings to steward within home education! But that part is key: we are stewards, caretakers, and these tools are used so long as they are a blessing, and not the focus. Material tools will not make or break an education {so don’t place more value in them than they are due} – look back a few hundred years and you can find families with one book, usually the family Bible, and nary a single tablet, tangram, puzzle map, nor math manipulative. We generally find virtue between the two extremes – so please allow for those material tools that build a lovely environment and work for your family; please don’t allow all of your heart and focus to pour into your home education environment. Your environment may need to shift and change through the years with your changing seasons and circumstances.

An example: I am currently in the process of completely dis-assembling our learning room. It is…no more. {We are moving forward with our remodeling plans that will involve this room opening up to our kitchen and forming a lovely, large and inviting dining space.} I’ve had to relocate our learning space and streamline, consolidating to a few small shelves {keeping out only those things that I consider essential along with next year’s books}. And you know what, the process has been delightfully challenging. I’ve actually really enjoyed it! I stared at my learning room, and then took a deep breath, and got started. I’m sure I’ll need to share more in a post all its own soon! The point is though – as challenging as I thought it was going to be to let go of our learning room space, it was actually very instructive to me. I easily identified those things I considered essential to be at my fingertips, I quickly distinguished between good-but-possible-to-live-without, and I ended up with a very small space that is set aside as a place for those things to live. And I discovered that in streamlining and moving things to a completely different place that the atmosphere didn’t change. My environment certainly has. Yet there is still an atmosphere of hospitality that invites knowing the good, true and beautiful. I still welcome creativity. I still invite seeking to know. It has been an excellent lesson for me in the value in atmosphere as a foundation that far exceeds the boundaries of an environment.

The Common Pursuit of Knowledge

Don’t you love those advertisements that assure you that a product or book will give you the 5 surprisingly simple steps to accomplish “x”? They intrigue me and appeal to my need to outline and often triage information so that I can apply it wherever it fits within my life. And if something is going to work it will have be realistic and simple. So, imagine for a moment that you’re reading the back of a book promising to deliver just such a simple outline for you:

Would you like to ensure an atmosphere that is as perceptible as fresh air within your home education? An atmosphere that even a random visitor could observe? Do you want to ensure that your children’s intellectual lives and their moral health are fortified? Read on for the one surprisingly simple and easy to apply step that Charlotte Mason gives to ensure an atmosphere that is fresh and bracingly sincere.

What is it, you ask? What is the simple and easy to apply step?? All we have to do is let go of the idea that as teacher, we must know all, provide and disseminate all the information and knowledge in our child’s entire education. I know – huge sigh of relief, right? So, the one surprisingly simple step that is easy to apply?

Learn alongside your children.

Isn’t that a gift in its simplicity? It allows us to be humble participants, seeking after education, while at the same time exercising our role of authority.

Miss Mason reassures us that {emphasis mine}:

…the common pursuit of knowledge by teacher and class comes to our aid and creates a current of fresh air…

Don’t know Latin? Learn it alongside. Intimidated by science? Read alongside. Did your own public school education afford you a disjointed and rather miniscule overview of history? Great! Your own education is about to take off!

A CM teacher must read, must continue to learn, ask questions, and continue to exercise creativity…alongside her children. Seeking after knowledge and exercising creativity are not compartments that are isolated from real life and therefore only found as tidy little orchestrated subjects within primary education; they are in fact, the breath, the atmosphere of a lifelong living education. Continue to learn alongside your children with a desire to know, a sincere curiosity seeking after truth, and a willingness to express yourself creatively – in common pursuit – and the atmosphere of your home will be one that looks toward the good, true and beautiful moving as a current of fresh air.

I’m continuing a series that I’m really enjoying and I’m (re)learning so much! Join me as we discuss Charlotte Mason and her thoughts on our role in teaching. Today’s lesson:

Open Doors

We wish to place before the child open doors to many avenues of instruction and delight, in each one of which he should find quickening thoughts.

School Education, p. 170

The selection for this week is actually the very beginning of an entire paragraph which details the limitations necessary to a CM teacher, but there is so much in this one sentence alone that I chose it as the basis for this week’s post. I like this selection for so many reasons, and one of those reasons is the universality I find in Charlotte Mason; I can apply these thoughts with equal measure whether I’m thinking of my 1 year old or my 17 year old. So, with that in mind:

The teacher brings the child to the open door.

Our role as teacher is an active role, but it isn’t the typical form of teacher-as-lecturer-guru-and-dispenser-of-all-knowledge. The teacher places the child before the open door from a place of peace in her understood authority in order for the child to follow. See? It’s that coming alongside that involves a trust relationship and says, “Let me show you an open door that leads to delight – a door you’ll want to go through.” I can’t help but make a connection to the door in Lewis’ wardrobe. What treasures and adventures await the children! But they must go through the door first – the adventures beyond are theirs to explore.

The teacher’s role here is to be able to find, identify and lead a child to an open door which leads to avenues of instruction and delight. Can you recognize an open door? As a Charlotte Mason educator, this is a primary part of our role so it’s worthwhile to spend some time identifying some open doors.

If needed, spend some time learning how to identify a living book. Then invest time and budget to build an excellent living library. These are open doors. In a nutshell, a living book consists of “inspiring tales, well told.” Read more about living books here. In general, these are the Good Books (find an excellent list of Good Books here). You’ll make no better investment in your role as teacher than to begin to build a bank of books and authors that are wise and trusted friends that consistently point to “avenues of instruction and delight”.

Be able to identify toys and educational tools that are open ended – in other words, they invite the imagination to act on them. These are open doors. (An example would be building blocks, legos)

Look for opportunities that invite exploration – these would be things like time out of doors, a trip to a museum, a nature walk, cooking at your side.

At the beginning of every week, consider whether or not you will bring your child to the good, true, and beautiful in some way. These are open doors. Through picture study of beautiful art — listening to beautiful music — reading poetry — instruction in catechism, doctrine, and God’s word so that the child learns that there is absolute, objective good.

Notice that Miss Mason doesn’t instruct the teacher to walk a child through the open door. Our role as teacher isn’t in telling the child what to look at, explore, like, intuit, abstractly deduce, or otherwise frolic with once through the door. Our job is to bring them to the door; their job is to proceed and investigate. You’ll find this theme throughout Miss Mason’s works – the idea that the child learns in his digging. If you’ll allow me to mix metaphors, our role is to bring the child to the feast of ideas, their job is to eat and digest the rich feast before them. We can’t eat the feast first and then…regurgitate it and give it to our child. There is no value in that for the child. He owns nothing. If we go back to our door analogy, I could walk a child up to a closed door, tell him that there are wonderful delights beyond the door but that it would be best if he stayed outside the door – waiting – while I, as teacher, walk through to experience, read, learn, value, and then come back outside to the child waiting on the other side of the closed door, telling him what delights, wonders and knowledge has just been gathered on his behalf….and expect the child to get excited about the knowledge we’ve secured for them. No child is inspired by that. Bring the child to the open door. Allow him to enter and delight in the feast on the other side.

The open door is an avenue of instruction and delight.

This speaks to the inviting nature of the avenue which is through the open door.

As you begin to become familiar with open doors, consider that an essential component is whether or not there is an avenue that leads to instruction and delight beyond that door.

An avenue implies that there is a journey, that the child will be an active participant in traveling to a destination. This eliminates books, experiences and things which do all the work for the child, and as teacher, we would do well to remove these or at least minimize them (often referred to as twaddle, or you could think of them as potato chips – a little on the side is probably ok, but make enough meals out of them and there will be an alarming lack of nutrition). These would be textbooks, which are essentially just tomes of information that bullet specific facts that someone considered essential; opportunities which are so structured that they do not allow the child freedom to choose or explore; toys which do not allow a child to exercise the imagination and animate an experience in a variety of ways.

An avenue goes to instruction AND delight. Here is where we hint at the idea that education is a discipline. It’s still living, and the child walks through an open door. Not every avenue is easy to travel along. Sometimes the way is hard, challenging, hard work. It is worthwhile though; the avenue is instructive. This kind of avenue really requires that relationship of authority we spoke about in the first post. If you, as teacher, are going to ask your child to labor along an avenue that is challenging and worthwhile, you’ll need to be able to exercise an authority that is willing to listen, encourage, and provide sympathy while maintaining discipline so that a child doesn’t just stop along an avenue, stuck along the way, unable to motivate or navigate.

Along these avenues the child finds quickening thoughts

The phrase “quickening thoughts” can be an obstacle to understanding, but in defining “quickening” I find the key: to spring to life; become animated; give or restore life; the archaic meaning literally meant that something was beginning to show signs of life. Imagine thoughts that have been invigorated, kindled, inspired, and have come alive. The child’s thoughts are transformed once through the open door. With living books, opportunities and things the imagination is nurtured, built, and the child’s thoughts are now animated with life.

The child works and travels along the avenue of instruction and delight –>

The child’s imagination is nurtured. Inspired, his thoughts are living –>

And other open doors are encountered.

Idea unfolds onto idea.

Homework: build a proficiency in identifying open doors so that, as teacher, you can exercise your authority in bringing your child to these avenues of instruction and delight.

If you’re unsure about your ability to identify a living book, read more about them and see if you can’t begin to build a familiarity with them.

Go through your bookshelves – proportionally speaking, you should find more Beatrix Potter, A.A. Milne, Kate Greenaway and the like than other cartoony-twaddle. If your bookshelf features >>insert any current cartoon personality featured on Nickelodeon or in popular culture here<< to demonstrate stories, virtues, manners or (heaven-forbid) lessons in tolerance, then find a way to be bold and remove them. I’m serious. Keep 1 – 2 if they are favorites, but remove the bulk. Not only are they twaddle (junk food to the imagination), but if you accustom your child to this kind of reading, he will not be able to approach authors which write beautifully and with richness and depth of subject. They’ll be looking for Dora the Explorer to lead them around the Catacombs rather than Cardinal Wiseman (Fabiola).

Go through your toys. Oh dear. Now I’m in trouble. Yes – you can live without a lot of it and your child will {gasp} survive…and possibly even…{double gasp} thrive! Get rid of everything broken. Call it broken and throw it out. Maybe you could try this radical idea – go through all the toys your children have and put absolutely, positively everything away with the exception of 4 imagination-inspiring toys (or toy sets, like a collection of legos). Group them neatly into their sets, and place the sets out attractively on an open shelf. {Open door} Just see what happens. Take the challenge – I dare ya! My bet is that your child appreciates the attractive display of the limited supply of toys {open door}, and plays more: exploring, investigating, transforming a thing. You can read more of my thoughts on toys here.

Make a simple list of open doors in the way of opportunities. Challenge yourself to spend nothing. Look into wildflower trails, botanical walks, free museum days. What is the natural flora and fauna like around you? Take advantage of it! Make a few seasonal lists to keep at the ready and bring your children to these open doors.

Consider your day – is there enough margin in your day that is unstructured and free? Children should have time to play, explore, roam, build, construct, fall, scrape, and observe consequences. They need enough time in their day that they feel free to go through these open doors. If you have a different activity every day, consider where you might say no thank-you to something – otherwise your child will not be able to approach any of these {very necessary} open doors.

Next week we’ll explore more in School Education on idea of the Limitations of the Teacher. Let me know what you think about open doors and avenues of instruction and delight!

I’m beginning a series of reflections on teaching and teachers based on Charlotte Mason’s writings. I decided to do this because in recent reading in Charlotte Mason’s volumes, I just kept coming across these little gems on the topic of teaching, and they really began to stand out to me….and sink in. I enjoyed visiting with these ideas over the last couple of months for a few reasons:

These thoughts – these ideas – are usually fairly succinct. And that’s not difficult to imagine, is it? Because in a Charlotte Mason education, it’s the child that does the work by self effort. {Volume 6, p. 6} The teacher’s role isn’t so much diminished or devalued – not at all!! The role of teacher is properly oriented so that she is not spoon-feeding, over-burdened, or driving the child’s every interaction in the day. She is alongside.

I found that these little gems of thought from CM on teaching pepper almost every volume of Charlotte Mason. They’re not difficult to find, and together, they form an inspiring collection that help a CM educator remain focused and on-task – because the fruits of this education are in the long-haul.

I think I’m in a good place for revisiting some of these ideas on teaching in particular because I’m spending some time considering my role as teacher these days. And probably also because of where I happen to be along this road of home education right now.

My Perspective – Around the Block and Back Again

In a couple of weeks, I’ll be graduating my oldest and we’ve delighted in a Charlotte Mason education from the beginning right on through to graduation. It was exhilarating – just as Charlotte Mason said it would be. Not perfect. But exhilarating. {By the way, I’m going to ask her if she’ll let me “interview” her on the blog at some point – would you like that? – give us her perspective on her CM home education and maybe ask her to share some of her post-graduation plans. She has some exciting plans! }.

So with Sarah done, next year I’ll have a son doing high school work, one son in mid-elementary, one daughter in lower elementary, and a rapidly growing toddler. I’ve been around the block a bit, and it’s been a worthwhile and truly delightful trip around this Charlotte Mason block.

When my first was younger, I was focused on so much that was just right in front of me. One step at a time. And now…I feel like I have a grander perspective. I’m eager to learn more and apply it. I see where I’ve been (remember – it wasn’t perfect, ok; it was really good though!), and I’m delighted I’m headed there again…and again…and…and… So I’m spending some time thinking about teaching. And of course, that means I want to know what Charlotte Mason said about it. I really value her thoughts on this because I’m so blessed to be sitting here looking at the fruits of a Charlotte Mason education – a perspective that is both reassuring and inspires me to want to learn more and apply more faithfully.

Teaching from Peace: Our Authority Comes From God

You know, in considering where to start this series on teaching I really wanted to start with something foundational. And in considering that, it was easy to see that place: it begins with authority. Where does it come from? Who has it? How is it exercised? {Philosophy of Education, p. 73}

The teacher, or other head, may not be arbitrary but must act so evidently as one under authority that the children, quick to discern, see that he too must do the things he ought; and therefore that regulations are not made for his convenience. (I am assuming that everyone entrusted with the bringing up of children recognizes the supreme Authority to Whom we are subject; without this recognition I do not see how it is possible to establish the nice relation which should exist between teacher and taught.)

Our authority derives from God. If we teach with the understanding and recognition that our teaching authority is from God, and that we are under His authority, we are able to teach from a place of peace. We exercise our teaching with kindness, respect and an awareness of the child as a person made in the Image of God. In recognizing that we are in a position of authority, and with our teaching springing from that recognition, the relationship between teacher and taught is rightly ordered. And with that – peace.

I’m not saying it’s going to be easy, or all roses and pretty-flowery-tiptoe-ing-through-the-tulips happiness…because that isn’t necessarily peace. In fact, it’s my experience that the above is the anti-thesis of peace – some sort of artificial, forced and contrived atmosphere that exists only in the imagination of one person – usually the mother – who may be idealizing everything…and this artificial feeling is easily toppled by the first challenge. And challenges do come.

Peace is a confidence that springs from knowing you are doing what God wants you to do. You’re living His will. You’re working out your sanctification. In teaching. Living out virtue. Pointing toward the good, true and beautiful, and living out the good, true and beautiful in the ordinary parts of your day. And as with ANY growth in virtue – there WILL BE stretching…and pruning. Oh my. The pruning. You know that this part is painful, right? It hurts – the stripping of selfish, dis-ordered ideas of perfect days, perfect children, perfect responses. {Instead of perfect, seek the best.}

Even in our growth as teachers, even when days are messy, we can teach from a place of peace because we exercise our God-given authority seeking after the good, true and beautiful.

Exercising authority can seem somewhat nebulous in living it out in the practical day-to-day. Sometimes it helps to start with what authority is not:

It is not disorder – chaos does not reign

Authority does not arbitrarily give commands or dictatums

It does not motivate out of fear

It does not motivate with treats or rewards

It does not yield decisions to the child which are proper to the teacher – especially in the case of a child that may not want to do a particular assignment.

It is oriented toward growth in virtue

It recognizes that there can be value in the doing of a thing out of discipline

It expects cheerful obedience

It meets challenges with a spirit of willingness to brainstorm through a challenge {I think this point is really important because a lot of people think of authority meeting a challenge and they think of a result that looks more disciplinary in action, when authority would rather grow and stretch toward virtue within that challenge, as opposed to meeting out dictatorial demands}

Well, in living out my Tuesday, it seems I’m barely going to get this post published in time to still call it a Teaching Tuesday post. I hope that in considering teaching, you might consider your teaching role as grounded in the authority you’ve been given by God. There are so many other great insights Charlotte Mason gives us on the topic of teaching – I hope you’ll join along if you’ve come across something in your own reading! I’d love to hear your thoughts on authority in teaching! Leave me a comment or write about it and link me!

This post will serve as an index of the posts in this series. All of the posts in this series are also linked {look up…} in the blue navigation bar, under the title CM Teaching {hover your mouse over the title and a drop down menu will appear}.

How is your autumn so far? I hope it’s lovely and rich – full of those warm autumn smells of spiced tea simmering away…and roasting veggies…and leaves tumbling everywhere! We’re enjoying beautiful mild temperatures and are just beginning to see some fall color in our trees! This has always been my favorite time of year!

There is a lot going on here this autumn! I would love to chat about our books, continue my Charlotte Mason Teaching Tuesdays, share how the school year is going, show pictures of our autumn nature walks, brainstorm fall menus, and organizing closets…and I will definitely be back to that soon! But for now, we are in the middle of a major home remodel of the entire downstairs of our home. Yes, we’re still homeschooling through it! Challenging – sometimes! On the first day of demo there were walls coming down, brick being cut off the side of our house, saws blaring, incessant hammering…and Mark took an Algebra test and managed to score an A. So…we’re doing ok! The key to homeschooling while remodeling seems to be in keeping lessons and books portable and contained…and staying flexible!

This post is photo-heavy, and if this doesn’t interest you, here’s your chance – click away now – you’ve been warned! But for friends and family who have been asking – here’s what we’ve been busy with…

Before Shots

Family Room area

{Below:} In the family room there were different size openings to our living room that always bothered me. The closest opening (in this photo) was 5 ft wide, and the farthest opening was 4 ft wide. Dreadfully bothersome for those who enjoy symmetry. We plan to open this entire room up by removing all of the wall dividers.

Dining Room Area

{Below:} This room will be opened up to the kitchen – that wall there to the right – the one you see the bookshelves standing on. That wall is leaving.

{Below:} This shot was taken in my hall while looking into my kitchen – all of this should open up.

Kitchen

{Below:} you can see my cabinets, double ovens, cooktop, microwave, and half of all of the counter space I had in my kitchen. The pantry (the door on the far right of this photo) will be relocated to the new enlarged utility/mud/pantry room.

Below is a good before shot of my kitchen. Everything you see is leaving. We’ll repurpose the old cabinetry in the new pantry/mud room and I plan on reusing my current kitchen sink in my new utility area.

This little hall space just off my kitchen disappears and will become part of the new larger walk-in utility/mud room.

Laundry Room

This is my current laundry room. Complete with icky fluorescent light. I can’t wait for the larger space and natural light (we’re adding a window!)!

New learning room…which was a part of my gigantic bedroom

I’m sorry that all I have of our new learning room before shots is this panoramic shot I took with my phone. It makes the room look a little crazy! But you’ll get the idea – the room IS crazy big, and we’re taking the entire right half of the room (from the chair all the way over to the wall with the bookshelves, and making that space its own room: building a wall, adding hardwoods, and it will be our new learning room.

and now….

After 1 week of progress

This is the family room now….

No more walls – the room is entirely opened up now.

You can see where the walls used to be by looking at the floor – see the space with no hardwood? There used to be walls there.

{Below:} Remember looking into the dining room before? Remember that this room used to be my learning room??? The walls have been opened up and structural beams are in place. You can see that the old tile floors from the kitchen are all removed now, too.

{Below:} You can see my new walk-in utility room is framed, and a new window has been added to the room. My washer and dryer have been left for me to use through as much of the construction process as possible. 🙂 Whew! They also left my kitchen sink for as long as possible, but that’s all that’s left of the old kitchen and it will be leaving soon to make way for new floors and cabinetry.

Isn’t that new mud/utility/laundry room (still working on coming up with a charming name for this space!) a TREMENDOUS difference in size from the old little closet in the before pictures? I’ve always wanted something that was like an arctic entry (you’ll find these in cold weather climates – it’s an entry that can be closed off from the main house, and has a place for boots, supplies, and keeps heat in the house as you come inside), and I’m so excited that we worked this out in our remodel! While we don’t have arctic temps, we do get pretty cold here. And I love the idea of being able to unload all my {insert –> bulk-packaged-parcel-filled-wet-animal-muddy-kid-mess <–here} without having to schlep through the house. Bliss. I can unload it all onto the counters, or into the sink, or swish it into the bathroom -right in my happy southern-non-arctic-entry! You can imagine my joy and anticipation! I have had fun mapping out how I’m going to place old cabinetry and shelving in here so that this space isn’t too cluttered feeling, yet still houses my pantry goods, laundry and cleaning needs.

Here is more of the kitchen looking into the open dining room space now.

John Paul loved being able to do pull ups! 🙂

A different view of my walk in utility & pantry area. Love that bright window that looks into my gardens and lets in the western afternoon sun! Isn’t there such a huge difference of space in here now!! The space at the far end…with the window…used to be my old kitchen walk-in-pantry. We combined two spaces (walk in pantry and old utility room) and snuck 18 inches away from the kitchen and that gave us this big walk-through-non-arctic-entry room – which I love!

Lauren loves to investigate! Needless to say, we have to stay pretty close with all of the open walls around here right now!

She found a tiny hole in the sub floor and enjoyed looking into it. 🙂

And my new learning room space is taking shape…

{Above:} I’m standing in the bedroom part of my room, looking through what will eventually be double pocket doors, into what will eventually be our new learning room. The carpet will leave and the room will have hardwood floors like the rest of our home.

{Below:} You can see the new, framed wall. Even as I type, it is being drywalled and is changing even more in there.

We had to move all of our bookshelves and furniture into the bedroom part of the space to make room for construction. And there is ol’ faithful – our book cart! Still a useful workhorse during this entire process, holding our books and lesson plans, and rolling wherever we need it! Seems like we keep rolling everything further and further back! Maybe soon we can start rolling in the opposite direction! Hope springs eternal!

So…now you know what our autumn is like!! I hope to be able to do a weekly update showing progress as we go! This remodel is so exciting for our family. We love our home; we’ve been here for 12 years TODAY! And for the last 12 years, as our family has grown, we’ve been thinking of ways to make this home fit us better. And now…all of those years of research, planning, and saving have gotten us here! A few weeks of inconvenience will yield practical and pretty spaces, I hope!

I was a little intimidated at first – to live, cook, eat, and homeschool – through a remodel of the entire downstairs of our home, but you know what? It’s totally do-able! Of course it IS a drag just like you imagine it would be, but it’s NOT impossible, and each week I’m learning something new about tips and tricks that make living through this more pleasant and bearable. So, I thought it might be fun to share some practical ideas each week – in case anyone searching through might be looking for a little reality and sharing on making it workable while living through a remodel!

Weekly Tips for Family Living While Remodeling!

Week 1

…was all about demo and dust!

Cheap tablecloths from the Dollar store work well for covering tvs, small appliances while demo takes place. Cover the butter.

Clear bins are essential for packing up your kitchen. You think you don’t need a cheese grater for 6 weeks…and then you do. You’ll want to be able to see into bins to find things rather than opening every single one looking for the elusive cheese grater that stands between you and the microwaved fajitas you hope might resemble real food.

A dust mop is invaluable. I use my Sh-mop daily. Don’t be fooled by the lack of dazzling marketing fluff when you check out this mop! It’s the real deal! Wide mop head, washable mop covers (LOVE the terry cloth covers!), and the best thing about this mop is the SUPER STURDY handle – lean on it, push with it, scrub – it won’t bend or break. I thought I might need to buy a special dust mop, but my Sh-mop was magnificent – I wet one terry cloth cover with water only, mopped up the dust, and then just took it off, rinsed and wet mopped again. It picked up so much dust and then I just threw it in the wash. Normally, I’d mop with Murphy’s Oil soap, but I wasn’t going for glam floors…or even reasonably clean…I was going for dust-free. Cotton terry covers on a sturdy mop base did the trick.

Bags. You will want some really good bags ’cause you’re going to be living out of them for awhile. I thought this might make a good post all its own so you can see my bags, how I use them, what I put in them. But suffice to say, you’ll want sturdy bags of all kinds because some days you may just have to pick up and go…other days, you may be stuck in one room…upstairs…until 3 pm. Really. You’ll want food and the daily necessities. For now, I’ll share with you the number of bags I prep on a daily basis:

Food bag – this is an ample sized thermal bag that holds our lunch, snacks, water and juice for the day.

As I type, drywall is being finished, lights are being added to my kitchen, our kitchen window is being installed, and our new homeschool learning room is taking shape! I’ll be back to share more pics of the progress next week!

I like to keep our morning prayer books collected in a common space since we pray before we begin almost everything else in our day. Our morning prayer routine is pretty simple. The children are expected to be awake and dressed by 6:00 am, downstairs and gathered for prayer afterward. We’re memorizing all the Morning Prayers as listed in The Saint Andrew Daily Missal this year. The following are the books we use during our prayer time:

Daughter’s of St. Paul: Saints for Young People, Volume 1, Volume 2 (1963 edition because we follow the 1962 calendar for the Extraordinary Form, but the Daughters of St. Paul do have the same books updated to reflect the New calendar, too.)

The Catechism in Examples by Rev. Chisholm – oop, but you can find free ebook editions of the 5 volumes here (unfortunately, I just couldn’t get my ebooks to format well and it made the books difficult to read…) so if you’re hunting for this 5 volume series, look for the set that was fairly recently reprinted by Roman Catholic Books.

Mother Love – wonderful little prayers in this book and I use it for my personal morning prayer time after I finish with family prayer time with the kids.

Divine Office – this simple book is so easy to follow and helps us as we sometimes try to pray parts of the Office (mostly Prime right now). Note that this does not contain the full prayers of the Divine Office, and this book follow the 1962 Office readings.

Forty Dreams of St. John Bosco by St. John Bosco – these little biographical accounts of St. John Bosco’s different dreams (each with a particular theme, many of which pertain to purity) are wonderful for short little read alouds, and the saint’s writing is delicate enough for littles to be present, while being clear enough for older children. LOVE this book – it makes such an excellent read aloud!

I have been meaning to post some yummy recipes from my menus that we’ve enjoyed lately! This has been a busy graduation week here – delightful though! Since the week was busy getting ready for graduation (and I missed this week’s CM Teaching Tuesday post) I thought it would be fun to throw together a quick post full of pictures of a fabulous and simple meal from my summertide menu! This is based on a recipe I found on Pioneer Woman – Chicken Quesadillas. Friends, this could not be simpler to make!! It takes very little time (especially if you use the shortcuts I’ll mention below). And it really brings big flavors!

Start with shredded chicken breast. I don’t know how much to tell you to use – because…to make this ridiculously easy for me, I use the package of shredded Rotisserie chicken breast I pick up at Costco. My stars! Love that shredded Rotisserie chicken! Toss your shredded chicken breast into a very hot cast iron skillet that has just enough butter to cover the bottom of the pan (a cast iron skillet browns things so nicely, but if you don’t have one, just use a good stainless saute’ pan). Season your chicken with a little salt, pepper, oregano, cilantro (add some fresh cilantro if you have it!), cumin – or if you like, season with taco seasoning like the recipe calls for. Remove the chicken to a bowl after it has browned. Leave all those fabulous brown bits in the bottom of your pan!

Slice some beautiful red, orange and yellow bell peppers along with a large onion and add a little more butter to your hot pan.

Toss in all the sliced peppers and onion and salt. The steam from the browning veggies will deglaze the pan and pull all those yummy brown bits of flavor up!

Keep stirring until everything is nicely browned and sauteed.

Grate some Pepper Jack cheese and set it aside for layering on your fajita.

Oh my stars – this is so yummy!! I set my peppers and chicken on a big platter so we could serve ourselves.

Cut some lime wedges for adding to the top of your assembled fajita – the little splash of lime adds such a brightness to all the flavors! You won’t regret it! Layer the Pepper Jack cheese, chicken, peppers, and add some guacamole if you’ve got it. Roll it up…

Happiness! Summer on a plate! Ree’s recipe makes these as quesadillas, which I tried the first time I made it, but it got so cumbersome with all that cheesy-peppery-oniony-chicken-happy-goodness…that I couldn’t flip it or move it off the griddle. It was good though! So, the next time I made this, we just rolled it up in a tortilla and it was much easier to assemble and eat!

I’ve been freshening up around here – we’re on the last term of the year. You know that feeling you get as you prep the last term of the year, right? That I-can-see-the-light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel feeling? Yep, that one! Each term I sit down with my master notebook open and spend some time making notes to myself on each child – a child’s challenges, weak areas, areas of improvement and stretching, and areas I’m stretching. And, possibly more important, I check back in with the notes I left myself from the last term. It’s encouraging to see small steps forward in progress and it keeps me looking toward the big picture. Another thing I really enjoy doing is updating our physical spaces each term.

Between each new term there are:

books to be freshened

lesson plans that need to be written, polished, walked through, and printed

activities that need to be considered for the little people (keep just a few items out at a time and rotate all year long and you’ll hold interest!)

picture books that need freshening (I usually do this every season, but also between terms)

my desk and supplies that need tidying

files that need to be freshened and updated

In between each term I declare a teacher’s week – a full week to give myself the time to accomplish my list so that we can start the new term refreshed. Set yourself up for success with some new sidewalk chalk, pre-approved videos, easy meal plans, and an agreement worked out with the big kids to help watch the little kids so you can get your work done!

As I was enjoying my teacher’s week last week, I thought about homeschooling these past 15 years, and how there have been a few constants that really stand out to me – ideas that got me from preschool to high school…and back again. I thought I’d share a few new pictures of our spaces as I tidy and freshen around here, and share three fixed points in homeschooling – the three things that will get you to the finish line with peace and contentment if you embrace them! Are you curious? Let’s roll!

#1 — Homeschooling is about change. Malleability may be the cardinal virtue of the homeschooler! (Followed closely by commitment…to work hard, fail big, and brainstorm the challenges.) Because, every year, every term, every child…every.single.day is about flexibility and change. Spaces can’t remain static. Plans can’t remain static. Children certainly don’t remain static – they grow, mature (ok…well at least we hope they do! LOL!), and meet challenges. And as days stretch toward truth, goodness, and beauty an awareness begins to unfold: that all of this necessitates some open-ness to change.

Are you operating under the assumption that if you canJUSTget in enough planning time you’ll get ahead of the curve and then it will be smooth sailing from here on out? Thinking that because you finally invested the time to >>insert worthy activity here<< that you can coast? You can let that pipe-dream go. Planning and organizing time is essential and it IS a huge help, but you’re going to lather, rinse, repeat every year.

Home education is about meeting needs from day to day. Add – a baby, toddler, preschooler, new student, new reader, independent reader, middle schooler, high schooler, any life change – and you have a new paradigm. Which you’ll probably need to adjust for! Keep it real, and keep changing things up to keep it fresh!

#2 — It doesn’t always look pretty. Not even close! You’re going to ask me if these pictures I share here are real? Is this really my life??? Yep, the pictures are real and this is really what life looks like! And so are the days with blocks littered on the floor, popcorn for dinner, and lesson plans that weren’t completed. I like sharing images that are inspiring (at least I hope they are), but that doesn’t mean they don’t represent our reality, nor are they a judgement on your reality. These images are a snapshot of the simple beauty I’m trying to capture in that moment – something to share with you. I’m not a fan of inspiring mediocrity, and even less a fan of comparison. Take the good – it doesn’t belong to me anyway.

I’m a mom that works hard, falls flat on my face (often), gets up and tries again. A gazillion times a day. And some days are awful. You know those days, right? The ones that you start looking forward to evening chocolate and Chardonnay around 8:00 AM!! The days you have “a moment” in the middle of lunch prep. I know those days, too!! They’re going to mix in there with the joyful moments as part of your everyday. And I’ll share a secret with you, those days – those days – are valuable. Those days are where we grow in virtue: it’s where we stretch, and slow down, and where we learn to prayerfully brainstorm on our knees. Those days aren’t pretty and they often come with a fair share of thorns (and moments), but they’re worthy nonetheless. We become saints if we cooperate with the grace in those days. Value them. It will be life changing if you do.

# 3 — Build on good habits! —alternately titled — You can’t teach if they’re not teachable. There is so much that could be said on this, and I’m by no means a parenting expert. Miss Mason said it well, and she was right – it begins with authority! When we abdicate our God-given authority, anarchy reigns, and that precious time in the early years that we could spend letting them wonder and building good habits and laying down rails that future days can run on, is squandered.

Do you want to be able to hand a child a set of lesson plans and have them move toward self-education one day? You better foster obedience now.

Do you hope to be able to get through the hard stuff – the skills that are challenging and don’t come easy for your child? You better encourage persistence – try, try again.

Do you expect your child to retain anything? Develop the habit of attention right now.

I’ll pretend I’m writing a note to myself – the me of 15 years ago – when I had two children who were young and I was over-eager to homeschool:

Dear me,

You’re ready to start homeschooling! You’ve amassed a quantity of catalogs, wishlists, and paraphernalia to fill in what seem to be too many quiet, unstructured moments. Grab a cup of coffee and sit down and listen.

Enjoy the tender little moments, they’re treasures and memories are built there! Don’t rush toward curriculum, and learning to read, and workbooks, and catalogs full of whiz bangs. Spend time. Model virtue. Go outside. Read good and worthy books aloud…and then read more. Fill days with worthwhile activities that inspire, delight, and provide a good medium for growing good habits. Gently and firmly insist on good habits – this will be more of an investment in your homeschooling future than anything else you do!

Do all this, and one day your 2nd grader will be able to listen to you read Robin Hood and tell you about the story; your 6th grader, who is perplexed by a math concept, will take a break and come back to the table willing to work rather than displaying a nuclear meltdown of epic proportions; your high schooler, not thrilled with the prospect of Latin, will persevere out of discipline.

All this and more will happen – not because your 4 year old got a head start with a massive curriculum package, but because you first opened the door to wonder.

Always yours,

me

The finish line!

You’ve got this! Nurture early days of wonder that are rooted in good habits, know that there are going to be those days, and embrace change! We’ll all work hard, fail sometimes, and get up and try again tomorrow! And a little wine never hurt either!

I’ve been meaning to share a few plans and printables with you for the Morning Basket this year. This year, I’m working with a 9th grader, 5th grader, 2nd grader, and 2 year old. Our Morning Basket shares the same principles it has always embraced – a lovely, common starting point for the day – although this year I needed it’s features to be simpler…because…toddler…and high schooler…and toddler…and kids in between…and toddler. I’ll share some of my toddler strategies in a future post, but by far, the most effective strategy for reading aloud with a toddler…is to wait for nap time, or wear them in the Ergo! A hands-down favorite employed often here! (If you’re new to the idea of the Morning Basket, start here, or if you’d just like to read everything I’ve written and shared on our Morning Basket, you can do that, too.)

When I was planning for this year’s Morning Basket, I wanted to think in broader categories and fill in from there. So, I decided to think in terms of the Good, True and Beautiful. I’ve mentioned before that some days (not often…but some days) I need the Morning Basket to stand on its own (insert >>doctors/dentist appointments…outside activities here<<). Considering the Morning Basket as a cornerstone of the Good, True and Beautiful in our day means that if I have to walk away from formal plans at this point, I’m sure that imaginations have been nurtured and fed.

I made a chart (of course!! LOL!!) to represent each day and what I want to cover…

…which I can then print, one for each new week, and simply note what I included in the appropriate box.

–>If you’d like a printable copy, you can download a free copy here: Morning Basket blank planning grid. If you’d like to recreate something like this yourself, this is just a simple table dropped into a Word Processing document. Nothing fancy!

Each week, I open my new Morning Basket Binder (which I’ll share in glorious detail in an upcoming post!), reference my Term 1 choices (shown in the table below), and just fill in details for the day. Below are my Term 1 Morning Basket plans for 2015 – I only have Term 1 plans finalized for right now so that’s what I’ll share. 🙂

I’ll share a bit about the books and resources we’re using for each section of the Morning Basket. If you look at my chart, you can see that I’ve spread out the rich feast of offerings throughout the week – for example, if you look at the top banner of my chart you’ll see that we cover art and picture study along with a faith read aloud on Mondays; Tuesdays are for Folk Songs, Plutarch and a short Geography lesson; and so on. This ensures that I cover a wide spectrum of the Good, True and Beautiful throughout the week, and my chart keeps me focused, ensuring that each day is varied and simple!

Every Morning

We begin each morning by reviewing prayer requests and intentions, reviewing new prayers we’re memorizing (you can learn so many new prayers by spending 5 minutes a day on them in the Morning Basket!) and reading about the saint of the day. We use Rev. Hugo Hoever’s, Lives of the Saints for this (note that we follow the 1962 calendar in attending the Extraordinary Form of the Mass). The children say their morning prayers individually each morning before they come downstairs…before the day ever starts. Katie (my 7 year old) is training Lauren (my 2 year old) to say her prayers by modeling while Lauren listens and mimics. Sweet! Nothing is more helpful than a good example repeated regularly!

Monday – Art & Picture Study, Faith

Art & Picture Study – I’m using a very old, found-treasure of a book, Famous Paintings Selected From the World’s Great Galleries and Reproduced in Color, in two volumes, with notes and commentary by G.K. Chesterton. I’m pretty sure I’ve talked about this resource before because I’ve used it in past Morning Baskets, but as kids get older, and new kids come along, these past resources are fresh and ready to be enjoyed again!

The index makes it helpful to plan paintings for the term. I use these books in the same way I use any other art print, the children study it for a few minutes (in silence) and then they narrate the painting back to me. I’m always amazed at some little detail they remember that I didn’t notice. If you ever have a chance to secure these two wonderful books, don’t hesitate!

They’re very large books, so keep that in mind, but the artwork is also large and quite lovely to look at! Here are the choices available at Amazon, but keep in mind you’re looking for both volumes if you hunt for this set. Here are a few image examples from Volume 1 of this set:

Treasure and Tradition: The Ultimate Guide to the Latin Mass – I always choose something special to read aloud as part of the Morning Basket that will enrich our faith. Last year we slowly read through the 40 Dreams of St. John Bosco and WOW! If you’ve got boys, you’ve got to include this in your rotation at some point! It’s just wonderful and gives so many practical helps to build virtue and avoid vice!

This year, we’re reading through St. Augustine Academy Press’, Treasure and Tradition, and it’s an absolute joy! We’re learning so much about the rich, rich history of the liturgy, it’s structure, the meaning behind the structure (so deep!). It’s full of so much beauty, and it’s a wonderful fit for the Morning Basket because it’s easily managed in very small, bite-size chunks!

: The beginning of the book contains rich background and explanations on our faith. We read one page at a time in this section.

: The majority of the book is set up to be used as a Missal, with the right facing page containing the Missal for a portion of the Mass and the left facing page containing rich historical details and information pertaining to THAT section of the Missal.

: We read and discuss one two-page spread each week.

: The pages are glossy and lovely to touch and view. The photos and illustrations are brilliant and absolutely stunning! There are many, many illustrations from older books and art that help cement understanding and visualize historical explanations. For example, I have seen many illustrations of the Holy of Holies, but the full color version included in this book is excellent! As are the many diagrams that assist in understanding the structure of the Mass – like the beautiful depiction of the Canon of the Mass.

: My 7 year old does sometimes bring this book to Mass and uses it as a Missal. The inside cover contains “key” images that show Father’s position at the altar, what he’s doing, and indexes it to that page in the Missal. When she gets lost at Mass, she looks at Father, notes where he is and what his gestures are, finds the corresponding illustration in her book, and flips to the right section in the Missal. I’ve not seen anything this useful for little ones learning the Mass – EVER!

Tuesday – Folk Songs, Plutarch, Geography

Don’t laugh – we’re working on some civics understanding this year, so I’m throwing good ol’ Schoolhouse Rock into our “Folksong” slot. Because…….We, the people, in order to form a more perfect union…….sing along! I know you know it! I have a new book I’m still previewing: Teaching American History Through Favorite Folk Songs. It seems like it has potential, but I need to review it more closely!

For Plutarch, we’re following the Ambleside Online rotation, and reading Marcus Cato this term. Yep, even to the 7 year old. Do be sure to check out Anne White’s study guides (they’re linked next to each term’s Plutarch schedule and they make a tremendous difference in reading and understanding Plutarch!) Read the study guide first (to yourself), then read the Plutarch selection aloud ONLY to yourself. This will help tremendously with your ability to read aloud to the kids, emphasizing the correct parts, and giving a good, understandable read. Then discuss vocabulary, review where you were in last week’s reading, and then begin. I read 1-2 paragraphs at a time and then ask for a narration. This is an area that really benefits from a group narration and that’s why Plutarch always lives in my Morning Basket. My bigger, more experienced narrators really help in digging into some details and nuances of Plutarch that might be lost on littler kids initially, but the shared narration helps everyone along.

Geography was something I wanted to work on with more attentive focus this year. If you haven’t read my recent post on Map-Dots, be sure to check it out because it has done so much for connecting places for our family! In addition, I’m using Charlotte Mason’s Geography book (online free here). I’m not following a schedule, we’re just reading and discussing one lesson a week.

Wednesday – Poetry, Composer & Classical Music

I’ve selected poems from Walter de la Mare’s Collection: Come Hither: A Collection of Rhymes and Poems for the Young of All Ages. It’s been an absolute delight! I selected the poems I’d read at the beginning of the term, one per week. I chose this book because I heard Mortimer Adler recommend it somewhere (he was discussing poetry compendiums and specifically mentioned this one) and it hasn’t been a disappointment! The poems are so evocative and each of the chosen poems is a delight to the imagination. And friends…ahem…can I just say, “15 year old boys”…and do you get me? They don’t typically gravitate toward poetry, but my son enjoys these and narrates them so well! All my kids do! I read a poem aloud, the kids narrate it as a group narration (they take turns, speak one at a time, a strict rule of no-interrupting is enforced). I’m keeping this collection as part of the Morning Basket for some time!

For composer and classical music we’re finishing up Bach, just because we so enjoy listening to him, and after that we’ll follow along with Ambleside Online’s schedule, enjoying Johannes Brahms.

Thursday – Hymns, Nature Study

I still hadn’t finished planning out all of our hymns for this term at the time I posted this – so I’ll add to my list as we progress. Mostly, I’m working on reviewing some hymns that my seven year old tends to slur and sing one known word loudly, while singing another 2-4 words equally as loud, yet completely indistinguishable. A sort of blend of words…so it ends up resonating through church as something like this: “amenny-ammoon-SACRAMENTUM-aa-aa-yay-yay-yay-CERNUI”. Thus. Review.

For our focused nature study elements we’re studying trees this term, reading one section in the chapter on “trees” in Comstock’s Handbook of Nature Study. I wanted to make better use of this excellent resource, and this term’s reading has been a success! After reading a small section, I challenge the children to find something out of doors that might illustrate our daily reading. This isn’t a requirement, and isn’t always feasible, but it is a help in focusing these weekly nature walks. I’m also reading a little each week from Gina Ingoglia’s, The Tree Book. The introductory sections are wonderful, and so are the individual sections on particular trees. The illustrations are simple, yet lovely, and provide rich inspirations for our nature notebooks.

Friday – Virtue & Habits, Cultural Literacy

For the last couple of years I’ve used Simply Charlotte Mason’s resources for focusing on particular habits because it’s laid out so nicely, and it’s simple for me to review a little at the beginning of a term and then pick up and go when we’re ready for a lesson. Here’s how I do this:

Pick one habit to work on each term. Not a collection. Not a group. Not one new habit each week. ONE habit for EVERY 10-12 weeks. Slow and steady, my friends. This term’s habit is: Kindness. ….ahem…this habit may require more than one term’s worth of focus to see any fruit.

I prepare by reading about the selected habit in Laying Down the Rails: A Charlotte Mason Habits Handbook. This book is simply a compendium of Miss Mason’s thoughts and words on particular habits. She had lots to say! You don’t *need* this book, but it’s certainly a time saver and helper for me in staying organized because it’s all collected and grouped nicely. As I read, I make notes about supernatural virtues and Catholic ideas I might want to cover. I glance through my own books to see if I can fill in those Catholic viewpoints with a few readings from books I own.

I open up the corresponding habit (Kindness for this term) in the Laying Down the Rails for Children: A Home Companion book. (This is a great explanation detailing the differences between these two books). I spend a little time reviewing the habit section. Each section is broken into lessons, and I make notes in each lesson – I may want to add something. I especially like to add stories of a saint that embodies that virtue/habit. The provided stories and poems are quite rich and lovely! I cover one lesson/week and throughout the week, I refer to a lesson or poem or example and encourage growth in a virtue. I might also work privately with an indivicual child, encouraging simple helps and mortifications (making small, daily sacrifices) which might help them grow toward virtue and target a vice.

Each lesson really is quite simple – reading something short aloud and discussing it. It’s the lingering and continuing conversations which fit into everyday life that really help cement!

Did I mention slow and steady? Really! No rushing!

While this resource is not Catholic, it is certainly Christian in content and I have found nothing anti-Catholic, or that would be objectionable for a Catholic to use. Therefore, I can recommend it to you without reservation, encouraging you to add in the richness from our Catholic understanding of supernatural virtues, the great helps we have in the graces we receive in the Sacraments, and the beautiful examples of our big brothers and sisters, the saints.

My final resource has been a really fun hit this year! We’re using E.D. Hirsch’s Appendix list – What Literate Americans Know – found in the back of Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know as part of our dinner table conversation. This really couldn’t be simpler – no elaborate planning, charting, list-making required! I keep the appendix bookmarked, I open it after we say prayers, I read the next word on the list (example: Achilles’ heel) and look up at the family…waiting…looking….does anyone know what this is? Have they heard it before? Can they guess? Anyone? The discussions and conversations have been fun and enriching. A couple have stumped me! And my little kids have surprised me in some of the things they know – especially references stemming from a mythological story! I started this as a way of extending the idea of the Morning Basket a bit and targeting some culturally relevant terms I hoped my big kids would know. Especially my biggest kid who has graduated and is out in the work force. We only read and discuss a few terms (enjoying the ensuing conversation), and we only do this when everyone in the family is at dinner together. You may have to research a few of these, but the results and growing cultural literacy has been fantastic! Lots of potential here!

Read Aloud Books for this Term

Crusade Magazine – This is an out-of-print series that is so worthwhile to search and find! All total there are 45 issues, but issues 1 – 20 and 21-40 are the easiest to find. I have issues 1-40 thanks to a dear friend who gifted them to me years ago, and I’ve used some variation of them every single year since then. This year, I’m using selected issues as Church History (as a replacement for Trial and Triumph used in Ambleside Online, Years 1-5), and I really love how it is working out! Issues #21, 23, 25,27, 29, 31, 33, 35, 37, 39 all contain stories that pertain to Church History. If you have the Crusade series, and would like to use these issues to read through Church History, I made a chart which indexes these issues within the series chronologically and also coordinates the history period read with the Church History covered in Ambleside Online years.

Little House on the Prairie series – We started reading this series last year, and we’re continuing. This series is so rich in virtue examples!! And it’s just a fantastic read aloud. My oldest read this series for herself, and when I realized no one else had read it yet, it was a no-brainer to add to the schedule.

George Washington’s World – This book makes a great read aloud because the chapters are so short and lend themselves well to reading aloud in one sitting. The writing is excellent and reaches many ages all at once.

I didn’t intend for this to get quite so long, but I do hope you enjoyed a little peek at our Morning Basket. I think I mentioned at the top of this post that I really hoped to simplify our Morning Basket time this year, and after 5 weeks of Morning Basket, it’s been a great success! Each Morning Basket takes around 30-45 minutes!

Morning Basket Binder – COMING SOON! Check back in soon! I have another post with lots of pictures of my new Morning Basket binder that I can’t wait to share with you! Here’s a sneak peek of it below…

If you’re looking for a way to organize it all…all the poems…the lists…the memory work…your resources – you’ll want to see this!

And…for more Morning Basket inspiration, click on over to my friend, Pam’s Morning Basket podcast series, and subscribe! She has some amazing guests talking about all-things-Morning-Basket! Her first podcast with Cindy Rollins is already available – so wonderful! Pam and I chatted about the Morning Basket as part of her series, and I can’t wait for her to share it with you!

Do you cherish these board-book-filled days as much as I do? They’re sweet and tender aren’t they? We’re all preparing the soil in these delight-filled early years, and it is no less important that we do so with sweet and sturdy little books that are inviting and build the imagination with the good, true and beautiful.

I’m often asked about our favorite board books, and I thought I’d share some of our treasures with you – maybe a few of these ideas will give your reading basket a hopeful start. You’re beginning, right now in these earliest of years, to rebuild the culture! Yes, that’s right – without a curriculum, without a scope and sequence, without overthinking it – one small basket of thoughtfully chosen books is all that is needed to begin to prepare their imaginations…beginning with the good.

There are many ways to begin to open doors to delight – in imaginative play, working purposefully alongside mom and dad, and plenty of time with little books. You’ll start right here, sitting for short moments, building and stretching little bits at a time so that your little one begins to engage – lovely pictures, beautiful and simple words, and sing-song rhymes. These are the foundations upon which a rich and fertile imagination begins to grow so that one day, having been prepared by Hickory Dickory Dock and Home For a Bunny, your child is ready for the more sophisticated poetry of the Psalms or Shakespeare.

{Charlotte Mason, Home Education, p. 161}

It can be discouraging – your perfect little basket of books, a comfy chair, sunlight coming through the windows at exactly the right angle, a quiet moment which seems to beg for this idyllic moment you’ve built up in your mind – and your toddler wants nothing to do with sitting still in your lap to read. Be patient! Here are some ideas for beginning with an eye toward the reality of the curious and active toddler.

Sit on the floor! Little people like it when you’re with them, in their space. Sit down, grab a book and start reading. Perhaps your little one will wander over out of curiosity, perhaps not. Either way, you’re filling the moment with your voice tenderly allowing the words in the book to become a part of that space.

Read the little book as if it is the first time you’ve ever encountered that book. Allow yourself to be engaged. Your open-ness to the wonder and delight in that little book will be attractive.

Don’t put board books on a shelf – keep them in a basket or a sturdy bag and low enough that little one can bring a book to you. {Save your shelf space for big kid and adult books.} Build a thoughtful little library of board books so that you can have a few in each room.

Don’t set out your entire collection of board books all at once! Be choosy! Set out 5 – 6 sweet little books at a time in a small basket. Too many books usually equals –> pile and throw and toss and chew. One small little basket of just a few books is easier to manage. I like to set mine out by season, or by theme – so all the fall, pumpkin board books will be out soon. We just had a bunny theme set out. There are no rules here, really. Your selection could be random, or if you’re just starting to collect, it might be small! Smallish is very attractive to little hands!

Their dear little attention spans are not long, so don’t be discouraged if you get through a page – one page – and your little one is ready to move on. That’s ok! Good habits start very small!! One little page today, maybe a page and a half tomorrow, two pages the next…and so on! The point is — be content with small and build from there.

Be choosy! There are so many board books out there, and here is where you will have the first opportunity to choose worthy and delightful books. You’ll meet authors that will be friends for a lifetime if you choose well. You certainly don’t have to be a board book snob, but if you have a quantity of board books with characters from Nickelodeon, you may want to reconsider a few, move them along, and begin to introduce books which delight the senses and inspire the imagination – worthy little books!

And then…start with simple little book rules right now. When your little one starts to abuse or misuse a board book, there’s no need to be apoplectic or even scolding – simple and gentle little actions and words will help to begin to set a tone of respecting family books. Simple stuff, really! But it begins to lay a foundation of treating things with respect and general tidiness. Moms of littles, these are habits you want to start building now! Trust me!

If little one begins to chew on a book –> remove the book and gently say, “we don’t eat our books {smile}” and hand little one a chewy toy.

You ask: What if baby throws a fit because I took the chewy-delicious-heavenly-cardboard book away? That’s ok. Again, no need to go ballistic. Let little one express his/her displeasure. They do not get the book back though, nor do they get your attention until they’re done throwing the fit. No bargaining, no begging, cajoling, pleading – no nothing. Just let them be and walk away…of course, staying within reasonable distance to ensure things are safe.

If little one throws the books –> start collecting books and putting them back in the basket {remember this is easier to do if you’ve only set out a small collection rather than all 160 board books that you own} and say, “Oh dear, we must be done reading. We don’t throw our books.”

You ask: What if baby throws a fit because I took the book away? See above measures. Stay calm, don’t get upset or take it personally. You just rained on little one’s parade. Into each life a little rain must fall!!

One time, each day, cheerfully announce, “It’s tidy time!” and let your little one help you pick up books and stack them back in the basket.

You ask: What if my little one absolutely, positively REFUSES to help tidy her little toys and books? Time to learn! First off, make sure your toy area doesn’t have enough toys and books to stock 5 aisles of Toys-R-Us! I’d be overwhelmed by that, too! Just a couple of simple baskets of toys is all that is needed at one time! And one simple basket of books! Now, take little one’s hand, and gently guide them to one book, pick it up, put it in the basket. Speak cheerfully and sing-songy – make a fun song out of tidying together. Most little ones LOVE to help mommy!

The following is a list of some of our treasured board books. Not all are in print, so I’ll try to link you to vendors that offer the book at a good price. {Full Disclosure: Most links go through my Amazon Affiliates account. Thank you!}

The Beatrix Potter board books are an excellent introduction to Miss Potter’s delightful tales! These would be excellent for older toddlers and each of these retain Miss Potter’s original illustrations and story!

The following books are relatively new, but the idea is simple, the books are based on literary characters {Baby Lit Books} or famous artists {Mini Masters}. The Mini Masters contain collections of each artist and a very simple poem connects the art pieces through the book. The Baby Lit series takes counting or opposites or letters, etc., and weaves the literary characters in the theme. I find both series quite charming!

I am very picky about children’s illustrations when it comes to conveying the faith. I do NOT like it when Our Lord, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the prophets, patriarchs and apostles are portrayed in cartoony-style art. Therefore, I’m only linking the very few board books I recommend.

Babybug – Though these are not technically board books, my littles have truly enjoyed this sturdy, smallish magazine-like baby book that arrives monthly. The pages are small and easily turnable. There are nursery rhymes, clapping games, and simple stories. {In the pictures above, my Lauren is holding and enjoying one of the Babybug magazines} They’re also easy to tuck in a bag for a day out of the house! We like bringing the older, familiar BabyBug magazine-books because my little one is familiar with the story and sometimes when you’re out in unfamiliar spaces having a familiar book friend is comforting. With some care (nothing crazy! I mean, our little Babybug mags have folds and creases – they’re loved!) this set can last through a few children. We’re on a second toddler with one set of Babybug books.

Please do share with me any of your favorite board books! I’m always looking for a few more treasures {especially with Christmas and birthdays coming up}, and I know others will check in and enjoy as well! If I didn’t list one of your favorites, share with me!

As we wrap up our year, I’m looking back at a few plans and books to review and chat about. Without a doubt, our Morning Basket time continues to serve our growing family. What began around 8 years ago as a common point in the day with shared reading time, has evolved and grown into something that is full, and extraordinarily rich. At the time, I didn’t see how essential this time would become, but I see it now.

In revisiting my earlier thoughts on the Morning Basket, I came across how I originally began to envision our common time:

I began to brainstorm a basket of inspiration that could be ageless in its offerings, that spanned abilities, that spoke to beauty and loveliness, and gave the day an inspiring start. My idea was to gather a collection of offerings that all the children would want to be a part of…a collection that could almost stand on its own for the day’s work if needed.

I know I’ve landed on something good (not good because I get credit for coming up with it, but good in the sense that all good must come from God) if, after 8 years, that is still my motivation and vision. And it is. Our Morning Basket is still ageless, inspiring, and a collection that can stand on its own if that’s what is needed for the day.

And, I’m not alone either – if you’d like even more perspective, you’ll want to listen to Cindy Rollins talking about her Morning Time. At the time I came up with our Morning Basket, I didn’t know about Cindy’s Morning Time, but I find it affirming that individually we’ve both come up with something so parallel. It speaks to the universal good of this common time spent together, I think.

With each new year and each new season, our Morning Basket time has evolved. Some seasons have been pretty sparse in Morning Basket offerings, and I’ll be honest, in looking back I can see those times as bereft of the richness I want as part of our educational offerings. I can see overall consistency in our Morning Basket time over the years, but there are definite times that I was less focused. I’d re-evaluate, and get up and refresh A-gain with the needed self-discipline to roll with a full and rich Morning Basket. That’s meant as an encouragement – if you’ve tried this before and you’re coming around again to the idea – it still works – brainstorm again and roll with it again! If you’re enjoying this kind of common time together already (whatever you might call it), then I encourage you to keep living it, make it a priority: it yields great fruit over the years!

Here are some of the benefits that I probably didn’t recognize at first, but over the years, I’ve come to value:

Older sibling example to younger siblings. Since the Morning Basket is the place I keep my virtue/character read alouds, I like that my bigger kids are also modeling good habits during this time. My little kids do pay attention to this – no lesson planning required!

Group narrations – can I just tell you how much I love group narrations!! All narrations have value, but again, that modeling that goes on in a group narration has yielded enormous fruit. And a group narration with a variety of ages – enormously valuable! It teaches:

narration – the skill of it

attention – to the person narrating

that someone else’s perspective may be different and valuable

prompts rich discussion within the family

young children must learn patience in waiting their turn to contribute

older children must extend their respect to their younger siblings as the littles narrate

The HIGHLY efficient use of time! In a CM education, all the children may be reading Shakespeare, studying an artist, composer, reading and learning poetry and other memory work, working on a hymn…and more! Combine all of that into one fantastic time (call it whatever you want), and you have common time spent within the family. Win-win!

Aside from my perspective, I thought I’d share what has been a fantastic term of Morning Basket work for us, just because I gather so many ideas in seeing how others live out an idea. This isn’t meant to encourage emulation (I’m definitely NOT a super-hero! I’m just a mom that brainstorms, lives, falls, gets up and does it all again)…or depression (don’t allow examples shared by other moms to be an occasion of sin: no comparing, fretting, or feeling inadequate! Use it as a tool for motivation)!! So…with the disclaimer out of the way…

Picture Study

We’ve really, really enjoyed using the Simply Charlotte Mason’s Picture Study Portfolios this year! What a fabulous collection that makes approaching a particular artist so streamlined and attractive! This term we studied Monet, a particular favorite artist of mine.

Composer Study

This term we studied George Friederic Handel and I read a little each week from Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Composers: George Handel. I haven’t used any books from the Getting to Know… series before, and we liked it. It’s a little cartoony for my personal preference, but it was engaging and a good biography for children. (We really enjoy the Opal Wheeler series a lot if you’re studying a composer from her series!). I use iTunes to assemble particular pieces from a composer when we study the composer. I typically read ahead in whatever book I’m using for the composer’s biography, and choose specific pieces mentioned and then as we read about the piece, we spend the next week or two listening to it and getting to know it. Sometimes I can’t find a piece, even in iTunes, and youtube works great as a help for this. We read about Handel’s Biblical Oratorio, Israel in Egypt, and were intrigued {open door}. So, I found an excellent performance to watch and we really enjoyed trying to find the plagues as part of the oratorio.

Formal Art Study

This is something that is just plain hard to fit in our day. I have a few kids to work with, and that means that my involvement in anything is limited. I finally figured out {I’m slow…I know!} that putting art instruction in the Morning Basket meant that we completed it more, and time spent was more efficient because we were all together. I’m definitely continuing with this approach! I’m a long time fan of Artistic Pursuits series for this. I typically break this out of the morning time and I’ve really hit my stride in approaching it this way. I like to save this for after lunch, and I have had SO much success with actually getting it done if I let the kids enjoy their afternoon out-of-doors time while I set up our space {without them in it!}: setting out the supplies for the lesson for each child. No scrambling and looking for a #6 paintbrush during the lesson. Another duh! moment {see the theme here –> she’s slow but eventually gets it!}: preparing the lesson means a smoother lesson for the children and allows me time to really enjoy it!

Nature Walk Time

I’ll be honest, if I don’t peg this somewhere during the week, then the week slips past and we don’t do a focused Nature Walk. And then weeks tend to add up. I don’t like that. That’s not to say we don’t spend plenty of time out of doors, but there really is so much wonderful value in a focused Nature Walk. So, I brainstormed some questions that pertain to the season/term, and I keep this simple: we walk in our own gardens, yard and wooded treeline. {I LOVE taking special walks on wildflower trails and mountain hikes, but some seasons necessitate closer to home walks – so if you don’t walk because you’re intimidated by the thought of getting out and going to nature, bring nature to your windows and walk in your own gardens!}

Story of the World

We don’t use this resource every year or every term, but this year because of our study of Ancient History, we’ve been enjoying the audio version of Volume I, and the Morning Basket is a great place for it to live – everyone can enjoy it. I don’t do anything over-complicated with this. We listen, they narrate. Simple.

Faith and Religion

We start with our morning prayers here and then each morning we check the Liturgical Calendar {Note: we follow the 1962 calendar since we attend the Extraordinary Form of the Mass} and read about the saint of the day. We primarily use Saints for Young People For Every Day of the Year, by the Daughters of St. Paul (2 volume set), copyright 1963, for our reading. My little kids love the Liturgical Calendar coloring book which we subscribe to. {I print the month’s coloring pages at the beginning of the month and then bind them with my Proclick} I may also read from a Baltimore Catechism lesson here, or another liturgical year picture book.

Read Aloud Time

Covering History, Natural History, Virtue/Character

I try to read aloud from something from Natural History. This term we’ve been hopping around based on seasonal interest. I might choose a picture book, or we sometimes read an article from the month’s Nature Friend magazine.

Since Charlotte Mason always integrated reading about national history {obviously, her choices were English history since she was in England} alongside her period-specific history choices, I’ve discovered that the Morning Basket is an excellent place to read aloud our national history book! This term we read The Chestry Oak by Kate Seredy. It’s an excellent book, but it wasn’t a good fit for our Morning Basket with the ages I have now. It was too much for my youngest. But now we’re reading Nathaniel Hawthorne’s A Wonder Book {admitting the obvious: this is not national history} and everyone is thoroughly enjoying it!

I’ve also been reading a little at a time from Simply Charlotte Mason’s Laying Down the Rails: A Habit Training Companion {we’re still in Book 1…working through slowly}. This resource (as are all of SCM’s resources) is integrated with CM’s writings, and I like the format. Each week I read the Parent Prep section which gives me a good sense of where we’re going with the habit we’re working on. Then, once a week, I read a lesson {sometimes two if the lesson is short}. Sometimes there may be poetry or other quotes which make excellent copy work or additions to our memory work. Since we move slowly, we really spend some time adding ideas about a particular habit to our everyday way of life. We may cover 1 – 3 habits each term {3 is a stretch}.

Memory Work

True confession: I’m still working on a memory work system. I like the system that SCM describes in their Scripture Memory System because it involves a system of review and repetition, but I haven’t yet committed the time to take it, translate it, and make it a part of how we work. Maybe a summer project for me? In any case, I do value making time for memory work. Inspired by Celeste, I use Evernote to gather mp3 files of audio versions of hymns and folksongs so that I just pull Evernote up when we’re learning something new.

Shakespeare

We usually read some Shakespeare as part of the Morning Basket, but we took a break this term. Now, you Shakespeare purists, don’t throw tomatoes at me, but we just love Shakespeare: The Animated Tales for setting up some context. {Do preview these – though they are animated, they cover content from Shakespeare faithfully – mature content and all!} We have so much fun drawing out a character map for a play. This one is from A Midsummer Nights Dream – it’s so easy to get tangled up in the many love interests! Merciful heavens!

…and we like Lamb and Nesbit for young children’s reading of Shakespeare. I really recommend Marchette Chute’s Stories From Shakespeare for background before reading a play! It’s essential for mom/teacher, and often works well when read aloud.

And…in case you’re interested, I’ve compiled a document that details Shakespeare’s works. It contains notes about historical context of a play, movies that might be based on a play, general content themes and {my own} thoughts on age appropriateness. I’ll add it here in case it’s a help: Shakespeare 37 Plays–Reference. {I built this in Pages for mac, so if you have Pages and want the original document so you can add/edit it – just email me and I’ll send it to you!}

Extra Stuff…you know…the stuff you notice your kids don’t know

For example, I recently realized that my 9 year old can’t yet recite the months of the year. {ugh} So, I make a note of it here and we work on it in our Morning Basket. Same with learning the branches of government, name of the President, Congressmen, Senators, important phone numbers, blah, blah, blah. There’s always something…some little gap I’m noticing. The Morning Basket gives it a place to land.

I also sometimes throw a little map work in here – nothing complicated here {you know my theme…be simple or…begone! :)} I give the child a simple labeled outline map of an area we’re studying for 5 minutes {set a timer}. They study it. Then I give them the same map, unlabeled. They label as much as they can remember. Lather, rinse, repeat this enough and a child can learn an amazing amount of basic map work over the years.

In wrapping this up, I’ll add that we spend on average 1 hour to 1.5 hours each day on Morning Basket work. It’s meaty, so the time investment is there. BUT…let’s say you’ve got a full day outside the home: errands, a lesson, Mass, stop by the grocery store, then home for dinner and marathon laundry…AND…there is some hope for a day of school lessons, too??? My solution has been to make our Morning Basket time the priority. And to keep Morning Basket really flexible, I add everything I can to Evernote {free app that I HIGHLY recommend} and my iPad {see if you can find some of your books from your Morning Basket to store on your iPad, many are available free in the public domain and this allows you to read from the book…or your ereader! It’s a great help in flexibility!} so that Morning Basket is also TOTALLY PORTABLE! It’s enough. I don’t make this the rule, but it’s an excellent exception to the rule for a full day and it keeps us rolling forward.

If you’re considering your year(s) past, wrapping up…and if you’re like me and beginning to consider the year upcoming, do consider something that might function as a common time, a Morning Basket. It doesn’t have to be complicated, in fact it should be simple! It is efficient in its function in your day which makes it a wise investment of your time. Living book and Memory work choices can be appropriate for all ages in your home! And this time may become for you as it has for us: an anchor that nurtures family, inspires ideas, and collects it all in a simple basket.

Well hello! I've been collecting wildflowers & marbles and sharing here about all the ordinary things that make life joyful since 2007. You'll find a little bit of everything here - planning, organizing and decorating ideas, Charlotte Mason & Classical home education ideas, lots of books, our Catholic faith, and a peek at a few of the corners of our life. I'm so glad you're here!